NEW SCARE CITY

It's a fictional streetscape we wander, here, a metropolis whose buildings, boulevards, and back alleys are in a constant state of flux. This is every place, and yet, no place at all - a city of dreams and a dream of a city.

Here, we explore the life and work of Ivan Illich and his circle of collaborators. There's no comprehensive index to the articles published, but we invite you to use the Search box, to the left, and to explore the Archive links that appear at the bottom of each page. Comments are welcomed.

Friday, October 05, 2012

Recalling a visit to CIDOC

Now a design consultant, writer and educator, Rodney Clough visited CIDOC in 1971, to attend a seminar on "interpersonal relational networks," organized by cybernetician Heinz von Foerster. (We wrote about this CIDOC event early last year.) At a website serving as a Festschrift for the Austrian von Foerster, Clough remembers his visit, which had its moments:

I did not know Heinz, nor did I know the other seminar participants, save one, Gordon Pask, a "cybernetician," whom I had heard lecture in New York two months earlier. I can blame June 21 [the day he arrived at CIDOC] on cybernetics, for it was cybernetics that lured me, caught me and beached me on the Mexican plateau.

"You're a day late."

I was listening to my other Cuernavaca host, Ivan Illich, with whom I had corresponded briefly and who suggested I attend this seminar.

"You printed the wrong day in the catalog," I countered, pointing to the catalog, which read, "Interpersonal Relational Networks, June 22." Ivan Illich shrugged me off and launched an "annoying-and-at-the-same-time-charming" non sequitur, "We have something for everybody."

He did. ...

Clough ranks as the first person we've ever seen use the word effulgent.

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Moi

Santa Rosa, California, United States
Writer, photographer, music fan; father and husband living in northern Calif.